The present invention relates to a method of processing silver halide photographic materials. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method that is adapted for rapid processing of silver halide photographic materials to produce a desired silver image color without yellowing and which is capable of preventing color change to sepia notwithstanding prolonged storage.
One of the requirements called for in the field of silver halide photographic materials is to achieve more rapid development, or to increase the amount of photographic materials that can be processed in unit time. This is also true with X-ray sensitive materials, for example, medical X-ray films because the recent rapid increase in the number of periodical physical checkups performed on the general public and the corresponding increase in the number of items to be checked in order to assure more exact diagnosis have caused the need for taking an increasing number of X-ray pictures.
A problem with the conventional techniques for rapid processing of X-ray sensitive and other black-and-white light-sensitive materials is that the resulting silver image color is sometimes tinged with yellow shades. Ideally, the silver image to be obtained should have a bright black color and yellowing is not desired for practical purposes. The problem described above is probably due to the smallness of silver grains obtained in rapid processing as compared with the case of normal processing. In any event, it has been difficult to attain a desired silver color by the prior art of rapid processing.
Rapid processing also involves a shorter fixing time but this often causes insufficient fixing on account of incomplete washout of unwanted silver and, as a consequence, the image obtained will experience so-called "sepia deterioration", or a change in color to sepia during storage. "Sepia deterioration" is generally undesired and should be avoided as much as possible in light-sensitive materials that are required to be stored for a long period (e.g., medical X-ray sensitive materials must be preserved for as many as 10 years in Japan).
Various attempts have been made to accomplish rapid processing without experiencing deterioration of silver color or "sepia deterioration" but it has been difficult to develop a technique that perfectly satisfies this requirement.